Published 4:00 am, Wednesday, June 18, 2003

2003-06-18 04:00:00 PDT Washington -- A federal appeals panel ruled Tuesday that the Bush administration may conceal the identities of hundreds of people detained after the Sept. 11, 2001,

terrorist attacks, saying disclosure of even one name could endanger national security.

The 2-1 ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit delivered a victory to the administration's policy of secret detentions in the Sept. 11 probe. It overturned a federal court decision last August that ordered the government to release the names to ensure that authorities were "operating within the bounds of the law."

The panel, citing a strong inclination to defer to the administration on national security issues, wrote that law enforcement officials made a compelling case that releasing the names would undermine authorities by informing "terrorists of both the substantive and geographic focus of the investigation."

"While the name of any individual detainee may appear innocuous or trivial, it could be of great use to al Qaeda in plotting future terrorist attacks or intimidating witnesses in the present investigation," the majority opinion, written by Judge David Sentelle, concluded.

Citing the Freedom of Information Act, a broad coalition of organizations sought the release of the names and other information in the arrests of 1,200 terrorism suspects, most of Arab and South Asian descent, in the months after the attacks.

Sentelle, a Reagan appointee, was joined in the majority opinion by Karen Henderson, who was appointed by former President George Bush.

In a dissent, David Tatel, appointed by President Bill Clinton, wrote that "the court's uncritical deference to the government's vague, poorly explained arguments . . . as well as its willingness to fill in the factual and logical gaps in the government's case, eviscerates both the FOIA itself and the principles of openness in government that FOIA embodies."

Attorney General John Ashcroft applauded the ruling. "The Justice Department is working diligently to prevent another catastrophic attack on America," he said in a statement. "We are pleased the court agreed we should not give terrorists a virtual road map to our investigation that could allow terrorists to chart a potentially deadly detour around our efforts."

Almost from the beginning of the post-attack investigation, the treatment of detainees has been a flash point for tensions between civil liberties advocates and the administration. Earlier this month, the Justice Department's Office of Inspector General reported significant problems in the treatment of 762 immigration violators taken into custody during the probe, many of whom languished anonymously in jail for months before authorities cleared them.

The Bush administration may withhold the detainees' names as long as it shows the information could impede a law enforcement proceeding, the panel wrote.